please rate the new template of my website

[Alexandros Itsios]

Hi, i'd like some more opinions regarding my website. Right now i have a template i bought from template monster. My site is StigmaHost. A few days ago we started the redesign of our site. The new design can be seen here - http://www.stigmahost.com/images/stigma.jpg

Any reviews would be much appreciated!

[George Dolidze]

Would you like reviews for the old or the new design? Why post both?

[chrisHPZ]

No, I can't agree with this website as it is meant to relate to what your website offers. Think about this. What do the graphics have to do with the service being offered here? Please provide an explanation because I can't think of one. I saw the old site, and thought it was very well done and professional. Now that sort of thing is going to persuade me if I were to do business with you. You have images that depict computer equipment meant to run on servers. Compare that with the images that seem like they would be found in a children's book. It's nice though that both sites offer multilingual versions though. It's important to connect with worldwide users nowadays. Especially since we are on the world wide web. Honestly brother, I would keep with the old site.

[George Dolidze]

No, I can't agree with this website as it is meant to relate to what your website offers. Think about this. What do the graphics have to do with the service being offered here? Please provide an explanation because I can't think of one. I saw the old site, and thought it was very well done and professional. Now that sort of thing is going to persuade me if I were to do business with you. You have images that depict computer equipment meant to run on servers. Compare that with the images that seem like they would be found in a children's book. It's nice though that both sites offer multilingual versions though. It's important to connect with worldwide users nowadays. Especially since we are on the world wide web. Honestly brother, I would keep with the old site.

I wouldn't keep the old site. It's a template that looks extremely similar to many other ones.
I love the looks of the new site, but as Chris pointed out, it's pretty unrelated to hosting. Maybe if you said you were "green"? But then you'd have to back that claim up somehow.

[chrisHPZ]

You don't like the old site George? I dig it, but you do have something here about being a "green web hosting company". Alexandros, is the service your site provides environmentally friendly? And if so, you might do well to add content stating such. Also if it's within your ability and whatever contract your held by in the use of the template, maybe modify it somewhat with some of the graphics from the old site and the colors and layout of the new site. Just a thought. Any idea can be improved and built upon. Had the good sir George not replied to my post, I wouldn't be here expanding on his ideas. This is a community forum here. The whole point if this website is to help others, or just to throw ideas out there.

[George Dolidze]

I don't like it because it is extremely unoriginal. I've seen almost the exact same site at least once on these forums alone. All hosting templates look similar.
Having said that, I'm not sure how original the second one is.

[Alexandros Itsios]

hi, thank your answers guys! i really appreciate it!
The template that i have now installed is a template from template monster. The new one (http://www.stigmahost.com/images/stigma.jpg) is the one we created inhouse.
What we want to achive with the new layout is to create something that will help users to navigate easier and make them remember our site, that's why we created a mascot. Having a template that looks like the other web hosting companies, is bad for branding i guess.
So what we try to achive here is to make the visitors remember our site, but make it easier to navigate and ofcource to increase our sales
Also, the idea of the redesign came when i saw the template of http://www.fatcow.com/ it's simple and easy to navigate, plus you remember it.
Regarding the environmental part, yes my company uses green energy for the servers.
Any comments good or bad would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[George Dolidze]

Well, if it's original, I think you should use it. I mean, it looks really well done, and it's quite memorable.

[Alexandros Itsios]

Would you change or add anything? what do you like/dislike in the new theme?

[George Dolidze]

Well, a couple things:

• the logo doesn't match the site too well. come up with one that involves either the bee, nature or both.
• I would put a white background with low opacity behind important text.

I guess that's it... I lik everything else about it. Especially the bottom, where the sidewalk in the park leads off into the back - that's a very good design aspect.